The companies

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NBCUniversal operates the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, local TV stations, cable channels such as USA, SyFy and CNBC, the Universal Pictures movie studios and theme parks in Florida and California. It generates about a third of the revenue for
Comcast, whose larger business is producing the pipes for cable TV, Internet and phone services.

Comcast's $16.7 billion deal to buy the remaining half of NBCUniversal ahead of schedule values NBCUniversal at $34 billion, not including $5 billion in debt. That's about 13 percent higher than two years ago, when Comcast's investment valued the company at about $30 billion, also excluding debt. By contrast,
CBS's stock price has more than doubled in those two years and the stock of ABC owner
The Walt Disney Co. has risen 41 percent.

Shares of Philadelphia-based Comcast rose $1.16, or 3 percent, to close Wednesday at $40.13. In opening trading, it hit $42, matching an all-time high set in March 1999.

Shares of
General Electric, which is based in Fairfield, Conn., rose 81 cents or 3.6 percent, to $23.39. The day's high of $23.48 was the highest level for the stock since 2008.

For GE, the deal accelerates a transition to a more purely industrial company, which investors have been wanting to see for a long time.

But the company does not need the cash. Long before this deal was announced, investors were wondering what GE was going to do with cash coming in from the company's operations. Now there's an extra $17 billion.

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